Sleeping Giant
Who is driving?!
A Family’s Shared Adventure Cruising tips for the tentative boater. Story and photos by Felicia Schneiderhan
I
discovered cruising through a back hatch. Before I ever set out on the Great Lakes, I lived on a boat in Chicago — not because I always wanted to live on a boat, but because I married a boater. That was 12 years ago. Since then, my husband, Mark, and I have cruised Lake Michigan and Superior from Chicago to Duluth. Along the way, we added three more crewmembers: Rafael (now 6 years old), Esther (4 ) and Anton (2).
Rowing to shore
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JUNE 2017
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LAKELANDBOATING.COM
We now live on land, but summers find us exploring the islands and harbor towns of Lake Superior. We’ve learned plenty about cruising the Great Lakes, made a few mistakes (okay, maybe a lot of mistakes) and lived some great adventures.
Lesson learned
Mark and I lived aboard his 38-foot Marine Trader trawler, Mazurka, in downtown Chicago for three years. We spent summers in the harbors along the lakefront and winters on the Chicago River at River City Marina in the South Loop. For the first two years, we confined our cruising to the Chicago area. Chicago can be a cruising destination in itself; there’s so much for the boater to do and plenty of short excursions to take: Docking at restaurants along the Chicago River, cruising around Navy Pier to watch fireworks, and anchoring in the bay just south of the John Hancock building (nicknamed “the playpen”) to swim and relax. There were plenty of times we invited friends out and just stayed tethered to a mooring in Monroe Harbor. Why go anywhere when you have the magnificent cityscape in one direction and the wide-open expanse of Lake Michigan in the other? When we finally ventured out beyond the Second City, we didn’t go too far; Mazurka only goes about 7 knots per hour. We visited South Haven, Michigan during the June Harbor Days; Waukegan, Illinois for the fishing; and spent a week exploring what we call the